Why should cell biologists study microbial pathogens?

Welch, Matthew D.

Finally, targeting components of the host cell may also prove fruitful for combating infection by intracellular parasites such as Plasmodium falciparum and other Plasmodium species, which are the causative agents of malaria. During infection of host hepatocytes, Plasmodium suppresses the expression of the cell cycle regulator and proapoptotic protein p53 and increases the expression of the antiapoptotic protein Bcl-2, thus preventing host cell apoptosis (Kaushansky et al., 2013) . It was recently found that counteracting the parasite's anti-apoptotic program by treatment with the small molecule p53 activator Nutlin-3 and/or the Bcl-2 inhibitors Obatoclax or ABT-737, all of which are under study as anticancer therapeutics, delayed or prevented onset of disease caused by P. falciparum (Douglass et al., 2015) . This reveals the potential therapeutic value of drugs that target host cell death molecules for treating infectious disease.